HotZone 3

A companion and concurrent campaign to HotZone.

Characters

Initial GM: John

• Boomer Smith, Dio's demo-man
• Gevin Dredd, Jeff's sniper
• Nadia Anosov, Susan's Russian pharmacist-shooter
• Luke Sarti, Brad's French wheel-man
• David "Dudu" Abirgal, Eli's Israeli operative
• Carter, Paul's Russian hacker

Background

Global Context

(The following was written in 2007.) It's ten years in the future on Gurth, and the world has changed significantly in the last 20 years. America invaded Iraq in 2003, and tensions began escalating worldwide immediately. In 2008, the sectarian violence in Iraq spread like wildfire, and War in Iraq became the War in the Middle East which became the Central Asian Crisis. Long before pundits stopped changing the label, it was a world class clusterfuck. Had Russia, China, and India not united to quell the violence through diplomatic means in 2011-2012, the crisis was on track to evolve into World War 3.

This gradual unraveling of peaceful cohabitation was apparent to military leaders in numerous countries, and in fact the United States Special Operations Command presciently predicted a change in strategy would be required way back in 2006 when they issued the following public statement:

“Creating conditions where people want to live peacefully is a powerful weapon against terrorism. Direct action will become increasingly restricted as the Global War on Terrorism matures. Indirect actions of Foreign Internal Defense and Civil Affairs programs are the key to winning the war on terror.” 1

Powerful governments with awesome military arsenals became increasingly aware that wielding their power was becoming politically untenable in all but the most extreme situations. United States Special Operations Command, as just one example of a trend worldwide, quadrupled in funding and personnel from 2008-2015, but forced a significant portion of their Direct Action specialists into early retirement, and instead filled their ranks with civil engineers, psy ops specialists, administrators, and diplomats.

However, focused Direct Action operations will always be required when organized groups are willing to commit violence to contravene national interests, and so outside of government military operations, a second and third tier of operatives evolved. The second tier consisted of large private security companies, with tens of thousands of employees, some tiny portion of which could be used for “wet work” of Direct Action operations.

The third tier has evolved over the past 7-8 years. Increasing public scrutiny over and demand for transparency in military expenditures in industrialized nations worldwide has made certain operations difficult to fund through the large and somewhat infamous security corporations. However, worldwide, government agencies always have funds available for classified “black” operations, and it is here that the third tier of operatives has found its niche.

This third tier, or “SubNet” is a loose affiliation of a few thousand specialists and commanders worldwide, mostly ex-military. By adopting terrorist organizations' practice of maintaining “cells” which know little about global operations, the SubNet maintains a thick veil and appears to be nothing more than disconnected gangs of shadowy figures.

Your Team

Your team is one such cell.

Headquarters

You're all freelancers, and have been working together for five or more years, based most recently in a luxury cliffside villa south of Vlorë, Albania. The sturdy 23-room castle was once the vacation home of a war criminal that you dispatched five years ago, and the team has spent a million Euros upgrading it with the most modern of conveniences, technology and equipment. A helipad graces its roof, and your live-in chef, Guido Ricardo, serves as your pilot as the need arises.

Some of you might provide occasional consulting to the Albanian military, which has both air and naval bases nearby, securing the occasional favor along the way (with points spent on Contact, Ally Group, Favor, etc).

Every few months, you accept a mission from trusted contacts generally in the service of justice and democracy. But it's a complex world.

In your downtime, you might be fond of windsurfing (or cliff diving, or fishing) in the Adriatic, or cavorting with beach bunnies on the coast below, or drinking Ouzo and writing poetry in the mountains, or practicing with your kung fu master, or hacking into Russian government servers for fun and profit. You decide.

Recent missions include:

• At the request of Mr. Black, a hostage rescue operation in Syria, still not recovered from its lingering civil war. While ultimately successful, and despite UN air support, this was a bloody mess, and you lost a team member in the firefight.
• At the request of Sylvia Montana, you infiltrated Divine Disorder headquarters in Moldova. You replaced hard drives in several laptops, sabotaged their weapons cache, and escaped undetected.
• A freelance operation in Sevestapol. You'd heard enough Ukranian mail-order-bride horror stories that you decided to act to disrupt one of Russian gangs responsible for the reprehensible slavery operation. You terminated a dozen gang leaders and air-lifted twenty-three blonde teenagers to the ever-receptive Swedish embassy in Albania. The girls and their families now reside in Stockholm.

Character Creation

Points & Traits

200 points total
max 100 base attributes
max 50 disadvantages
max 50 advantages
max 5 quirks

• No Supernatural (lightning bolt) or Exotic (alien head) advantages will be approved.
• A good story and 5-point Unusual Background (for each) opens up:
  • Extra Attack
  • Trained by a Master
  • Weapon Master
  • Enhancements such as Cyber/DNA/drug-based body/brain upgrades -- require GM approval.
• Some Martial Arts traits are designated as cinematic -- get GM approval.
• Generally speaking, you have plenty of cash and Swiss accounts for whatever you need -- within reason.

• If you don't select Computer Operation and/or Driving (Cars), you are very bad at these skills and will be unable to use them under pressure.
• Languages beyond English will probably be helpful. You're likely to have Albanian (Broken), at least. If you're from a non-english country originally, it'll be helpful to put a couple points into English.

Background

Your personal background must include military or some kind of paramilitary training (which includes spy and criminal organizations), though your emphasis might be on anything the military teaches -- raw soldiering, engineering, cyber operations, close-quarters-battle, hand-to-hand-combat, espionage, surveilance, assassination, smuggling, psychological operations, seduction, subterfuge, propaganda, languages, vehicles, etc.

Possible Hollywood inspirations: James Bond, Lara Croft, Elektra, Jason Bourne, Jackie Chan, Expendables...

Equipment

This is still generally TL 8, on the cusp of early TL 9.

You have access to a broad range of military-grade hardware and technology -- within reason. You certainly do not have a stealth bomber and nuclear weapons. You'll need to be able to carry your gear and (at least sometimes) walk about in urban environments without scaring civilians.

Your character has been and will probably be wounded by gunfire in the future. You'll likely have some favorite concealable body armor.

TL9 Biomedical (UT196), Body Armor (UT171), Conventional Small Arms (UT 135) and Accessories (UT 149) are available to you. Other TL9 items subject to GM approval. The bad guys may have some of this stuff too.

You'll all have the TL9 SuperGoogleZon handhelds of the future, encrypted, a billion throwaway numbers, 2TB storage, GPS, hands-free earbud operation, voice-commanded HUD with teammate icons in 1-mile service-free radius (etc etc).

What Happened

???

Sylvia Montana places 'the call' to Dudu and explains that Dirk Hansen's daughter Liana has been abducted, ransom demanded, and Dirk is on Var Island, Croatia intending to execute the transfer of cash solo. Sylvia, an old friend of Dirk's, hopes the team would be willing to be present and make sure things go smoothly.

Transportation is arranged, and the team arrives in the urban centro on the island with minutes to spare. Gevin sets up on a rooftop a few blocks away, with Carter as his spotter. The rest of the team mills about on the street, trying to act natural. Two suspicious characters are spotted -- an attractive woman at the cafe, and a businessman on a bus bench a couple blocks away.

Dirk, unaware of his nearby allies, takes the position instructed by the kidnappers, a sidewalk seat at the American Cafe. The pickup guy eventually arrives on a scooter, the transfer is quickly executed, and he speeds away.

Dudu rescinds an initial order to terminate the guy, and Luke jumps on his Ducati to give chase. Boomer dashes out into the street to block the scooter, but the driver is skilled and Boomer can't get his taser out in time.

The scooter disappears into an underground parking garage, and Luke stakes it out while Carter and Gevin climb down from the roof to join him.

The rest ofthe team keeps eyes on the suspicious woman, and the businessman, who separately descend from the centro down to the resort district and head for their room in the Marriot. Carter easily hacks the hotel's security camera and reservation systems, identifies the specific room they're in, and reserves the 3 rooms closest to it.